Live updates: JD Vance, Tim Walz debate on CBS

The only scheduled debate between the vice presidential nominees on Tuesday night – five weeks before Election Day – may also serve as the final word for the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump before a large audience on national television.

It's an unusual twist of fate for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance , whose selections over the summer thrust them into an intense political spotlight. A few months ago, Walz was a little-known Democratic governor and former six-term congressman who emerged as an unexpected contender as Harris' running mate. When Trump announced Vance as his pick at the Republican National Convention in July, the first-term senator had yet to turn 40, and he has served less than two years in elected office.

A review of several past general election and primary debates for Vance and Walz yields a picture of two candidates with specific approaches to their previous performances, which could be instructive for this high-stakes moment.

The Walz-Vance matchup may be the last debate of the 2024 election, unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns, with Trump rejecting calls from Harris to agree to a second meeting, including one proposed by CNN for October 23 in Atlanta. With an exceedingly tight race entering the closing stretch and early voting underway in a handful of states, the running mates' showdown Tuesday in New York presents one of the last major opportunities to make the case for their respective tickets.

Keep reading here about what Walz's and Vance's past debates may reveal.

Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs improperly accessed the medical files of Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and an investigation is under way, sources said.

Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed that VA employees improperly accessed Vance's medical records, and roughly two months ago, an employee in VA Inspector General Michael Missal's office reached out to someone in the Ohio Republican's operation to alert them of the breach, one of the sources said.

A Harris campaign spokesperson said it was informed about the breach of Walz's records.

The Washington Post , which first reported the incident, said at least a dozen employees accessed the records.

Terrence Hayes, a spokesperson for the VA, confirmed to CNN that the department reported to law enforcement "allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed veteran records" but did not elaborate and referred additional questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.

Vance enlisted in the military after high school, spending four years in the Marines and serving a tour in Iraq in 2005 as a combat correspondent. Walz enlisted at 17 and served 24 years in the National Guard before retiring in 2005 to run for Congress.

The moment Kannan Udayarajan decided to become politically active is seared into his memory.

It was four years ago when Republican Sen. David Perdue struck a mocking tone at a Donald Trump rally as he repeatedly mispronounced Kamala Harris' name . The Middle Georgia crowd laughed right along as he stretched out his words: "Ka-MAL-a or what, Kamala or Ka-MAL-a, Ka-MAL-a, -mala, -mala, I don't know, whatever."

That remark became a call to action for Udayarajan, 42, who now leads the Forsyth County Democratic Party and is part of the changing face of Georgia.

That mobilization is on full display here in Forsyth County, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, where the Asian American population has more than doubled in the past two decades, as it has in neighboring counties. Those voters are a critical piece of Harris' game plan in her race against Trump .

"In 2020, when Joe Biden won Georgia by 11,780 votes, Forsyth County delivered 16,000 brand new Democratic votes," Udayarajan said. "Now, four years have passed since then, and the demographics of the county have shifted considerably."

Those shifts could hold critical clues for the outcome of November's election.

Keep reading here about this key demographic